DiCaprio’s latest effort to convince a group of old men that they should give him an award might just finally work.
The Revenant is the latest offering of one-take madman Alejandro G Inarritu. Following a group of frontiersmen in the 1800’s on an expedition to gather fur to trade on arrival home, all before a bear ruins their picnic.
While The Revenant is not the one-take spectacle we saw from Inarritu in Birdman, The Revenant begins with undoubtedly one of the most brutal war scenes committed to film. This is thanks to keeping the camera on men as they are killed, you see the brutality of war in the time period, not thanks to blood and gore, but thanks to the sheer emotion in these barbaric deaths.
This is an incredibly strong opening that sets a distinct tone to The Revenant. However, soon after this as the film slows down and the story takes a turn for a more visceral yet reflective route, viewers may be left unsure of what they have gotten into.
Most of The Revenant follows the journey of revenge for Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), at times a reflective, philosophical journey for the character. As a whole, this story is incredibly visceral though, providing a realistic insight into survival in the time period. Due to the run time and more exploratory aspects of the journey of self-discovery for the character, many audience members will become bored throughout this though.
The cast for The Revenant has an undeniably huge cast, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy leading the charge. Domhnall Gleason also stars after having a monumental 2015 in film, along with Will Poulter. The entire cast are phenomenal, however, there is something to be said about Leo in his latest oscar-bait performance. Grunting occupies most of the film for Leo, and when he is not grunting he is simply silent. Granted Leo does have dialogue in The Revenant, there is a lot of grunting action, whether this can land him critical acclaim in awards season remains to be seen. For me, the performance from Leo in The Revenant simply doesn’t hit the mark for me as far as great performances are concerned, this isn’t due to Leo being bad but rather that he is not given an opportunity to really flex his acting chops.
A common complaint for The Revenant is that you can’t understand a word that comes out of Tom Hardy’s characters mouth, I will have to disagree on this though. This is a complaint that has come up before with Hardy’s characters and once again I simply don’t hear a problem.
The Revenant begins incredibly strong with a memorable war scene, up there with the greats such as Saving Private Ryan. From here, the story begins to wind down, departing from a focus on the group of frontiersmen to focus on Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) and his quest for revenge. The survival aspects of this adventure are terrific to watch, however, when the story begins to become contemplative and ‘dreamy’, momentum begins to fall behind. However, the story of survival is engaging enough to watch that it keeps you interested to see where it leads. While Leos performance isn’t his best, it certainly is a great realistic watch, though at times very full-on. A few too many grunts though, maybe go for more breathes next time, Leo. The supporting cast are all fantastic in their performances, especially an emotionally-charged Domhnall Gleason as a high-ranking frontiersman.
Thanks to a great realistic story (it is based on a real story after all), The Revenant impresses. However, when it gets a bit too bogged down in exploring the self-reflective elements of the story, the momentum drops. Superb acting across the board, gives The Revenant terrific realism that is needed for the subject matter. Superb imagery to accompany this makes The Revenant an even better experience. Just don’t expect Leo’s best performance
8.5/10
Yet Another Opinion Reviews 